Northeastern and the Roxbury Action Program tackle youth violence

Community organizations and Northeastern faculty will work directly with a school principal and students in Roxbury to design violence-intervention strategies for families of at-risk students and provide “green” job opportunities for unemployed community members.

Beginning in 2008, the Roxbury Action Program (RAP) and Northeastern University hosted a variety of community-based organizations to discuss specific strategies for eradicating youth violence. At the table are representatives from every corner of our community, ranging from law enforcement to academia.

“There is an incredible array of people from community organizations dialoging and expressing the problems – what’s being done and what needs to be done in the future,” said Joseph Warren, special assistant to the director of government relations and community affairs at Northeastern.

Participants in the dialogue will work directly with the principal of the Orchard Gardens K-8 Pilot School in Roxbury to design violence-intervention strategies for families of at-risk students. In addition, the partnership will explore training opportunities for unemployed high-school students and young adults in the “green” jobs sector.

“Children do what adults expose them to,” said Matthew Goode, cochair of the youth violence dialogues and secretary of the Suffolk County Conservation District. Their engagement in these initiatives “will provide them with satisfaction and a sense of successfulness, give them a sense of achievement and thus make them feel a whole lot better about themselves.”

The group’s decision to focus on projects such as urban gardening will expose students to opportunities not ordinarily available and teach them the importance of environmental health, Goode said. “It’s not just picking a peach off a tree for the first time or tasting corn on the cob that is sweeter than any sugar they’ve put in their mouths,” he said. “There is also the factor of teaching them about environmental health...this exposure is the best thing we can do for our children.”

Lloyd King, executive director of RAP, said part of the solution to stemming neighborhood violence requires that parents and educators help children develop a passion for learning and a sense of civic responsibility. “If children are not performing well in school, it can lead to undesirable results for themselves and the community,” he said after a youth violence dialogue in fall 2008.